Princess Victoria Research Paper

Most people know Victoria as the longest reigning British monarch. The woman who named an era and the Queen that brought us into the modern age. But little know of her struggle to the throne, which started before she was even born. It all started with King George the Third. The oldest of his thirteen children, George, the Prince regent, was the only one to have a legitimate heir to the throne, his daughter Charlotte. Her tragic death during childbirth began the search for the next heir. “In order to understand the nineteenth-century royal succession you should know of the main rules. First and for most, male children precede over female, regardless of birth order. The King is always succeeded by his eldest son, and if a king is childless, his oldest brother takes crown. For lack of a son or brother, English law allowed a man to pass his estate

to his daughter or sister (Gill 25).”
George remained without a child, so the succession went down the list of his brothers: Frederick, the Duke of York: William, the Duke of Clarence: Edward, the Duke of Kent: and Ernest, the Duke of Cumberland.

All the brothers were in a scramble to find a spouse, since one of them had to “produce a legitimate child who could inherit the throne (Gill 25).” The Duke of Kent married a widow name Victoire of Saxe-Coburg, who quickly became pregnant. Alexandrina Victoria was not only born to be Queen of England: she was conceived to be Queen (PBS).” On May 24th 1819, she was born at Kensington Palace. She was then fifth in line of succession to the throne proceeding over her male cousins. In February, the Duke of Kent fell ill. Victoria was only eight months old when her father died. Against royal tradition, Victoria’s Mother was her sole guardian. If her father didn’t sign the right over to her Mother, than the Duke’s closest male relatives would have had the right to determine her destiny. “Victoria would have been a very different woman, and a very different queen (Gill 39).” Her childhood was the main factor in shaping

her.
King George the Third fell ill the same year and passed away, making Victoria third in line. Her high place in the line of succession made her a target of power hungry men, one of whom was named John Conroy. He seized the opportunity to influence the Duchess and her daughter. Victoria’s childhood was heavily controlled by Conroy. He had no legal authority over Victoria, but he did have her mother’s full cooperation (Gill 39). In effort to break Victoria, they devised the Kensington System. The system denied her freedom. She was never alone; she had to have 24 hour surveillance. “Everything Victoria said or did was monitored” (Gill 60). She wasn’t even allowed to walk down a staircase without holding someone’s hand. This limited freedom was supposed to mold her to Conroy’s will, but it had adverse effects.
Victoria’s relatives had growing concerns for Victoria. When King George the Fourth Died, William the Fifth became king making Victoria heir to the throne. The conflict between King William and the Duchess increased. This caused more restrictions to be set in place. Repressing Victoria did not work; she started to show signs of rebellion in her teens. With a growing relationship between her Uncle, Victoria was put on house arrest (Gill 72). Since she was not yet eighteen, if King William would die the Duchess would rule until Victoria became an adult. As a last ploy, Conroy pressured Victoria to sign regency that would allow him to run the office until she was twenty-one. The Duchess also campaigned for her to sign, not that she thought Victoria was too young to reign alone, but because she wanted to fame and power for herself. The two could not pressure Victoria anymore, and she refused. The King’s health was in question around his birthday. If he could remain alive nine more months, “no Regency would take place” (Gill 71).
The King lived past Victoria’s eighteenth birthday, and on June 20, 1837 she was awaking with the news of the King’s passing. She was now Queen. She was no longer under the supervision of the Duchess or Conroy. Her first act was dismissing Conroy from her household. That night was the first time Victoria walked upstairs by herself and slept separately from her mother since birth. Her coronation took place one year later on 28 June 1838 at Westminster Abbey (royal gov). Over four hundred thousand visitors gathered in London to witness the new Queen.
Victoria later proposed to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, her first cousin, in 1839 and married the following year (History). Although she detested pregnancy and childbirth, she and Albert had nine children. After only twenty-one years of marriage Albert died. She refused to appear in public for nearly three years. And in the last 64 years of her reign she become known as the “widow of Windsor”, since she only wore black (mail online). She ruled until her death in 1901.